HELP!! New at breeding mollies!

[Kristin90]

Actually to b completely honest this was a mistake... But it happened and now I'm interested. Lol. So I have a black Mollie (f) and a dalmation Mollie(m), I know she is prego because she is absolutely huge but the male is still goin at it. Can anyone give me some pointers. I even went and bought another girl so he would leave her alone but he had nothing to do with her, so I but him in a fry net till I figure somethin out. Thanks for any help...

 

[Aron]

Keep them in a male to female ratio of 1:3 that should settle him down. Don't keep him in the net too long it wouldn't be fair on him!

If it is a Molly only tank have you added a tiny bit of aquarium salt because mollies do better in these conditions, especially if you are wanting to breed.

Mollies will breed readily and quite quickly, expecting roughly once every 4-5 weeks. Sometimes they can have very few fry, but can also have 50+ fry in some batches.

The way you can tell is the female usually becomes secluded and hides away near plants, she will stop eating in the last few hours prior to birth. The best sign to look out for is her gravid spot, the darker and the squarer this spot the more likely she will be to have fry. This spot can be found between her anus and gut.

Lastly, if you have had a healthy male and female together for longer than a few hours then there is a 99% chance she will be pregnant!

 

[Retired_AF]

I have a huge female black molly. She is over 3-1/2 inches long. Last night she dropped over 60 fry. This was her third batch this year. It looks as if my balloon belly orange male is the culprit, as the babies are a mixture of black, silver and orange.

The last batch is still in my fry tank and definately look like balloon bellies. After she was done I put her back in the tank and the male immediately started going after her AGAIN. Persistant devil, isn't he?


I'm not doing anything special, just keeping her with my other community fish. The tank is lightly planted and dosed with aquarium salt. temp about 80 degrees.